The so-called “Civil Police” mercenaries and agents of the Turkish intelligence service (MIT) kidnapped two civilians from Turkish-occupied Afrin canton in northern Syria.

According to reports from the ground, 33-year-old Emîn Remzî Kêlo from the village of Sorke in Rajo district was kidnapped from the house of his wife’s father in the village of Erende in Shiye district.

On the other hand, a 27-year-old woman by the name of Emîne Beşîr Silêman was kidnapped from the district of Jindires.

In another case, the mercenaries asked Fewzî Ebo, a resident of the Duraqliya village in Shera district, to pay a ransom of 3 thousand dollars to be able to continue staying in his house.

In a statement on 1 October, the Human Rights Organization Afrin-Syrian reported the abduction of three civilians, including a woman, from a village in Mabata district.

Afrin Canton was the westernmost canton of Rojava and North and East Syria, home to 200,000 ethnic Kurds. Though the population was overwhelmingly Kurdish, it was home to diverse religious groups including Yazidis, Alawites and Christians alongside Sunni Muslims.

On 20 January 2018, Turkey launched air strikes on 100 locations in Afrin, as the onset of an invasion they dubbed ‘Operation Olive Branch.’

The Turkish Airforce indiscriminately shelled civilians as well as YPG/YPJ positions, while a ground assault was carried out by factions and militias organised under the umbrella of the Turkish-backed National Army.

By 15 March, Turkish-backed militias had encircled Afrin city and placed it under artillery bombardment. A Turkish airstrike struck the city’s only functioning hospital, killing 16 civilians.

Civilians fled and the SDF retreated, and by 18 March Turkey was in de facto occupation of Afrin. Between 400 and 500 civilians died in the invasion, overwhelmingly as a result of Turkish bombing. Other civilians were summarily executed in the field.

Prior to the Turkish invasion, Afrin had been one of the most peaceful and secure parts of Syria, virtually never seeing combat during the civil war bar occasional skirmishes between YPG/YPJ and jihadi forces on its borders. As a result, Afrin offered peaceful sanctuary to over 300,000 internally displaced people from elsewhere in Syria.